Habitability Study on Space Station Colour Design

Various stressors such as microgravity, vibration, radiation, restriction, and isolation in manned spaceflight environments can cause a variety of negative psycho-physiological effects. At the emotional level, for example, they may provoke anxiety and depression, which affects the astronauts’ operational efficiency and overall mission performance. The colour design of a spaceflight environment could positively affect a person’s emotional level and thus help to counteract such negative psycho-physiological effects. This paper presents a new model for validating the colour design of spaceflight environments at the psycho-physiological and emotional level in order to increase the quality of emotional habitability and support efficiency and performance. Psycho-physiological experiments were tested on six coloured light in a dedicate physical mockup of a specific spaceflight environment. In particular the sanitary area of the space station was used as a case study. As result the highest quality of emotional habitability was achieved in a yellow coloured light environment, that is very close to the natural solar condition. Note: In order to support the confidentiality in this paper is not mentioned the name of the space station

Extreme genome diversity in the hyper-prevalent parasitic eukaryote Blastocystis

Blastocystis is the most prevalent eukaryotic microbe colonizing the human gut, infecting approximately 1 billion individuals worldwide. Although Blastocystis has been linked to intestinal disorders, its pathogenicity remains controversial because most carriers are asymptomatic. Here, the genome sequence of Blastocystis subtype (ST) 1 is presented and compared to previously published sequences for ST4 and ST7. Despite a conserved core of genes, there is unexpected diversity between these STs in terms of their genome sizes, guanine-cytosine (GC) content, intron numbers, and gene content. ST1 has 6,544 protein-coding genes, which is several hundred more than reported for ST4 and ST7. The percentage of proteins unique to each ST ranges from 6.2% to 20.5%, greatly exceeding the differences observed within parasite genera. Orthologous proteins also display extreme divergence in amino acid sequence identity between STs (i.e., 59%–61%median identity), on par with observations of the most distantly related species pairs of parasite genera. The STs also display substantial variation in gene family distributions and sizes, especially for protein kinase and protease gene families, which could reflect differences in virulence. It remains to be seen to what extent these inter-ST differences persist at the intra-ST level. A full 26% of genes in ST1 have stop codons that are created on the mRNA level by a novel polyadenylation mechanism found only in Blastocystis. Reconstructions of pathways and organellar systems revealed that ST1 has a relatively complete membrane-trafficking system and a near-complete meiotic toolkit, possibly indicating a sexual cycle. Unlike some intestinal protistan parasites, Blastocystis ST1 has near-complete de novo pyrimidine, purine, and thiamine biosynthesis pathways and is unique amongst studied stramenopiles in being able to metabolize ?-glucans rather than ?-glucans. It lacks all genes encoding heme-containing cytochrome P450 proteins. Predictions of the mitochondrion-related organelle (MRO) proteome reveal an expanded repertoire of functions, including lipid, cofactor, and vitamin biosynthesis, as well as proteins that may be involved in regulating mitochondrial morphology and MRO/endoplasmic reticulum (ER) interactions. In sharp contrast, genes for peroxisome-associated functions are absent, suggesting Blastocystis STs lack this organelle. Overall, this study provides an important window into the biology of Blastocystis, showcasing significant differences between STs that can guide future experimental investigations into differences in their virulence and clarifying the roles of these organisms in gut health and disease

Effects and Challenges of Operational Lighting Illuminance in Spacecraft on Human Visual Acuity

For large-scale manned spacecraft bound for the Moon and Mars, lighting should be explored that can reduce safety risks while increasing visual capability. The use of appropriate lighting in large-scale manned spacecraft can provide astronauts with a comfortable and safe living and working environment while reducing the energy consumption of the lighting equipment. Visual acuity is an important aspect of the quality of the light environment. It directly determines the human eye’s ability to discern details and has an important impact on visual ergonomics and the efficiency of receiving visual in-formation. In this study, we investigated changes in the human eye’s visual acuity in a simulated spacecraft environment under three illuminances. 18 healthy persons participated in the study and tested binocular vision under three illuminance light environments. The results show that the amount of change in visual acuity decreased as the illuminance value increased, the rate of decrease gradually slowed down and eventually tended to be flat. We found that with 200 lx as the dividing line, increasing the illuminance value at low illuminance can significantly improve visual acuity

Space Habitat Astronautics: Multicolour Lighting Psychology in a 7-Day Simulated Habitat

During space missions, astronauts live in a confined technological environment, completely isolated and deprived of the variety and variation found in the environment on Earth. This circumstance has a strong impact on the psycho-physiological states of the crew. Particularly in light of the plans for long-duration missions, new research needs to be carried out. The goal of this study, conducted at Xiangtan Central Hospital in China, was to test whether multicolour lighting can improve people’s psychological state in an isolated and confined environment over a period of seven days. Twenty participants (10 male and 10 female) were randomly divided into two groups: one group that was exposed to multicolour lighting and a control group, which was exposed to a static, monotonous white interior. The participants’ psychological state was recorded on the first day, the fourth day, and the seventh day. The results of the control group showed that the participants’ negative emotions and anxiety continued to increase over time, whereas the group randomly exposed to multicolour lighting that changed every three hours did not show any significant increase in negative emotions and anxiety. Moreover, the random change of light colour in the isolated environment appeared to help the participants increase their sense of surprise, thereby counteracting monotony. Finally, during this experiment, it was observed that when people who are accustomed to being connected to social networks were deprived of this, they experienced insomnia and unaccustomed reactions, in particular on the first days of deprivation. This article contributes to future space exploration and to social and psychological support of life in isolated and confined environments

Space Habitat Astronautics: multicolour lighting psychology in a 7-day simulated habitat

Laboratory astrophysics and astrochemistr

Operational Results of the EuroMoonMars-B Analogue Campaign at the Mars Desert Research Station

We present the summary of results of the 2013 EuroMoonMars-B analogue operations mission conducted at the Mars Desert esearch Station (MDRS). The two-week campaign involved a series of operations, human factors, and scientific exploration research towards goals of the International Lunar Exploration Working Group (ILEWG). The primary research objectives revolved around the operations to conduct field geology to identify targets of astrobiological interest, and to provide recommendations for future crewed expeditions for increasing the science return based on improved resource allocation. These activities include assessment of robotic and automation tools for assisting geologists to increase the efficiency of time spent on extra-vehicular activities (EVAs); crowd-sources mapping to identify potential target regions; and habitat-based human factors to reduce stress levels during operations. Secondary objectives towards those goals included a low-bandwidthEarth-Moon time-delayed communications experiment